tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post2477584510830578993..comments2024-01-04T00:14:40.360-08:00Comments on See Michelle Read: Novel Gossip: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth E. WeinMichellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007037401143598285noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-72889624062527256852013-09-24T15:49:55.293-07:002013-09-24T15:49:55.293-07:00ANNA! I need to reread Verity! Chachic, I think yo...ANNA! I need to reread Verity! Chachic, I think you might like The Book Thief because it's also from the perspective of ordinary Germans. <br /><br />I love this chat, ladies. I waited until I finished the book to read it so I wouldn't accidentally spoil myself. I was so anxious when I read about the little rebellions because I was so afraid they'd get caught but I guess they were already caught and already were facing the worst. This book kind of destroyed me. It just felt so real to me. I definitely need a happy book now. <br /><br />MOAR NOVEL GOSSIP. :)<br /><br />-MaggieYA Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08386116734093643947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-50310285259439970342013-08-18T14:04:33.113-07:002013-08-18T14:04:33.113-07:00I suppose I just justified it as transatlantic tra...I suppose I just justified it as transatlantic travel wasn't exactly easy back then. But also I guess Rose's aunt and uncle were able to pass on that she was okay but dealing with things and probably needed space.<br />Maybe they met up after the book :)Fencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04478271943214944729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-75959054917946434232013-08-15T09:54:41.227-07:002013-08-15T09:54:41.227-07:00Fence - I LOVE your comparison to LoTR and it real...Fence - I LOVE your comparison to LoTR and it really works wonderfully in context. I agree that Rose is definitely a survivor and can't ever go back to where she had been. <br /><br />That said, I think my main issue was that her family didn't even try (that we know of) to come visit her in Scotland. *shrugs* That's what i was missing.Michellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00007037401143598285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-67528616484711853722013-08-13T12:34:14.289-07:002013-08-13T12:34:14.289-07:00That comment Maureen said, about Rose not being ab...That comment Maureen said, about Rose not being able to go back, it reminds me of Frodo and The Lord of the Rings (which is in a way Tolkien's way of dealing with experiences in WWI) and how he has been through so much that he can never really go home either. It is almost the quintessential hero quest journey only the journey isn't your typical blockbuster-hero but a survivor.<br /><br />I didn't feel that this was quite a gut-wrenching as Verity, but I did cry, right in the first section, when we get the correspondence between Maddie and Rose's family, that was just awful and so many people must have gone through something similar, and probably still are in different parts of the world.Fencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04478271943214944729noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-83898810833504924472013-07-27T20:48:23.174-07:002013-07-27T20:48:23.174-07:00Chachic - I'm back! (finally!) Thanks again fo...Chachic - I'm back! (finally!) Thanks again for checking up on the comments while I was gone -- this was so fun. We'll have to do it again soon :)<br /><br />Maureen - Thank you for all your wonderful thoughts. As Chachic mentioned, we both really enjoyed RUF but in a totally different way than CNV. They <i>are</i> completely different stories and it probably wasn't fair for us to compare the two so much. But I think it is an inevitable comparison since the two stories overlap.<br /><br />Brandy - Thanks for adding your thoughts too. RUF was such a powerful read for me too. I never thought about travel being difficult for Rose's family after the war -- that's a good point. That said, if I knew my daughter had been in a camp, I'd move heaven and earth to get to her. You'd think with her uncle's connections they could have arranged something. I think that's my major concern. Thoughts of her family was one thing that got Rose through the war and even if she was utterly different afterwards, I think it would have been very telling to see them reconnect. Even if it had been an awkward, heartbreaking moment -- I wanted to see Rose be with them. At least, that's how I see it :)<br /><br />Li -- I agree with both what you and Chachic said. Maybe since this was a REAL story it seems that much more disturbing. And it contained such a beautiful message to "tell the world."Michellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00007037401143598285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-77882528771833851922013-07-24T02:51:00.018-07:002013-07-24T02:51:00.018-07:00Li, I guess you feel distanced from the violence i...<b>Li,</b> I guess you feel distanced from the violence in UF because you know that it’s fiction while RUF is historical fiction so you know that it’s an accurate portrayal of what happened during the war. It really is a moving, powerful written account. Tell the world, indeed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-70216593365080610832013-07-24T02:37:21.853-07:002013-07-24T02:37:21.853-07:00Brandy, I agree that Rose’s naivete was perfect fo...<b>Brandy,</b> I agree that Rose’s naivete was perfect for the story. It worked for me as a reader because like I said, I don’t know much about concentration camps since we never studied it in detail in our history classes. It’s funny how other people were surprised when they found out about that but it would make sense, right? It’s not like Filipinos were shipped to concentration camps in Germany. It’s not part of our history and therefore, less of a focus for us.<br /><br />Anna is such a complex character and I love that about her. She’s an excellent example of how the war isn’t black and white, there are many shades of gray in between.<br /><br />Surprisingly, I wasn’t as taken by surprise either, even if I didn’t know a lot about concentration camps. I’m not sure why, I guess I just had an idea of how cruel people were during that time so I wasn’t shocked by the details included in RUF. I remember being thankful for the relative peace that we have nowadays. I also remember thinking that I never, ever want the world to go through something like that again. So much pain.<br /><br />What you said about the lack of commercial flights makes sense, it would indeed be harder to travel from one country or another. But maybe she could have mentioned how her family was doing or how they were keeping in touch?<br /><br />Thanks for the comment! I’m glad our discussion is encouraging other readers to think more about the book.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-19299493319985435852013-07-23T20:51:46.457-07:002013-07-23T20:51:46.457-07:00Okay, I just realized that Blogger doesn’t have th...Okay, I just realized that Blogger doesn’t have threaded comments - since the replies are lengthy, I thought I’d do it one by one. This is for <b>Maureen:</b><br /><br />Yes, it’s fascinating how varied our reactions are to the same book. I guess we should have been clearer, we really enjoyed reading this one. The whole discussion might have been more positive if we didn’t keep comparing how we felt about RUF to our love of CNV? Yes, they are different but I guess we can’t help comparing how we felt about both books.<br /><br />Hmm I guess that’s a huge factor when it comes to how much you enjoyed the story – being able to relate to Rose. I would have probably felt the same if like you, I came from the similar background. When I read CNV, I felt like I was right there along with the characters. I was fully invested in Verity’s situation. I don’t know why that connection was missing with RUF. I know it’s an important book and like I said, I loved the idea of “tell the world”, which is what EWein did with this novel. <br /><br />Yes about Anna, it was so interesting to see what her experience has been like during the war. It really took me by surprise when her full name was revealed because I had no idea she was the same character from CNV.<br /><br />I don’t mind that Rose doesn’t go back home but I felt like there should have been a little more about her family towards the end. She really isn’t the same person who left the US and I doubt that anyone would expect that of her, I was just wondering why her family wasn’t more compelled to check up on her? <br /><br />Thank you for sharing your thoughts!<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-37684424958068468352013-07-23T12:46:33.055-07:002013-07-23T12:46:33.055-07:00I enjoyed reading your discussion too - thanks for...I enjoyed reading your discussion too - thanks for posting!<br /><br />I read a lot of UF and thought I was pretty much immune to violence in books, but ROSE made me flinch. Some of what Elizabeth Wein describes is truly horrifying, I closed ROSE thinking "Lest we forget" - it was a really powerful piece of work. <br /><br />Maureen - I loved what you said here:<br /><i>For me, Rose wasn't at all the same book as Verity--it didn't touch the same places. But it was more challenging, in a way. It doesn't let you get caught up in the wild adventure, the great game of Julie's deception. There are acts of bravery and courage, but they're quieter and somehow because of that--at least in my opinion--more important.</i><br /><br />100% agree.Lihttp://bookdaze.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-34967617496568215052013-07-23T12:32:10.088-07:002013-07-23T12:32:10.088-07:00This is me basically saying with a lot of words, &...This is me basically saying with a lot of words, "What Maureen said." <br /><br />I loved Rose from the beginning. And her naivete struck exactly the right historical chord, which is important to me. I like my historical fiction characters to see events as those actually living them would have and not as we who see them in retrospect do. I do not like it when characters behave in anachronistic ways and Rose having any of the knowledge she didn't early in the novel would have been anachronistic. <br /><br />ANNA. Having her come into this story was so perfect, and I agree it is a great way to emphasize that German dissidents were severely punished for not following the Reich in every way.<br /><br />I love what Maureen had to say about this being a different book to CNV. It is an entirely different sort of story. I didn't cry as much either because I wasn't as shocked or taken by surprise. (I took two classes on WWII in college, one on the Holocaust taught by a woman smuggled out of the Warsaw ghetto as a child. I know quite a bit about it.) Despite it not having the same level of I-can't-believe-that-happened shock power, I think it is harder to read in its entirety because it is a real story that too many people actually lived.<br /><br />I think Rose not seeing her family makes sense. She wants to stay in Scotland, and back then it was no small matter to get back and forth. (They were moving the troops out, commercial travel had not really went up again yet.) I can see why she made this choice. Her family knew an entirely different Rose. They wouldn't know what to do with her and I think forcing a reunion between them into the story would have pushed it into the realm of too unrealistic for me. <br /><br />Thanks for putting up your discussion guys! I love being made to think through my thoughts more closely. Brandyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12105770016693038906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-50572663099589799692013-07-23T10:09:09.723-07:002013-07-23T10:09:09.723-07:00As I said on Twitter, it's so interesting to m...As I said on Twitter, it's so interesting to me how differently people read the same book! And I'm really glad that you two had this discussion, because it made me pinpoint some of the ways I read the book.<br /><br />I loved Rose from the beginning, maybe because she felt so familiar to me--a bookish Anglophile from Pennsylvania? Yeah, very familiar. She felt like a relative. And I loved the poetry so much, both hers and the Millay that she quotes so often. While I didn't cry as much as I did when reading CNV, it was all the more fraught because the whole thing felt so real; I couldn't help remembering that the Rabbits existed. <br /><br />And yes, it is Anna Engel. I love Anna in CNV, especially on my re-reads, so I was so happy to see her again ("Is it? Is it? It IS!"), and I thought the way her story played out was really complex and fascinating. <br /><br />For me, Rose wasn't at all the same book as Verity--it didn't touch the same places. But it was more challenging, in a way. It doesn't let you get caught up in the wild adventure, the great game of Julie's deception. There are acts of bravery and courage, but they're quieter and somehow because of that--at least in my opinion--more important.<br /><br />I actually loved that Rose doesn't go back to the US. She can't. Too much has happened. She isn't the naive 18-year-old any longer, and I think it would have been too easy to let her go home and pretend that everything is okay. I was surprised when I first read that section, but the more I thought about it the more I loved it. <br /><br />So, a very different reaction from my end! But thank you both again for discussing it.Maureen Eichnerhttp://bysinginglight.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3150817862373096424.post-78003784909029437452013-07-23T07:23:12.744-07:002013-07-23T07:23:12.744-07:00It's up! Okay, will work on a post linking to ...It's up! Okay, will work on a post linking to this one. As always, I had so much fun reading this with you, Michelle. Looking forward to our next Novel Gossip discussion. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com